


New Year's Resolution

by wintertales



Category: Ripper Street
Genre: New Year's Resolutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 12:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17324921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintertales/pseuds/wintertales
Summary: Edmund Reid. A new year's resolution.Post-series.





	New Year's Resolution

He had regretted his decision to travel south more than once since he left the house in the morning. With every mile he had travelled, he had become more anxious. Leaving home had never been easy for him. Not a couple of years ago when he found himself living by the sea for some time - even though it had been the easiest decision to make back then - and not now, even though no one was keeping him at that place any longer.

But Whitechapel didn't let him go. His job. His duty. He was the only one left. He couldn't leave.

Yet he left that morning.

He looked at the scenery around him. It was a cold January day. The air was freezing and the snow beneath his foot scrunched with every step he took. But still everything around him was full of life. The trees moving in the wind. The birds flying above his head. People chatting at a place down the road. He couldn't understand their words, but he knew it was a pleasant talk.

Nothing about Whitechapel was pleasant. No matter how much it had changed during the years he had been living there, it was still cold and grey. The family and friends he once had, long gone.

He wondered if he should turn around and just leave again. It wasn't like he wasn't desperate to see the person he loved more than anything else in the world again but he was nervous. Nervous for the first meeting in years. Nervous to see her again. How would she react. What would she say.

But he kept walking. There was no more train back to London that day anyway…

When he turned right to the little house just outside the small town, he saw her. He would have recognised that red her anywhere in the world. They played in the snow. All three of them. Laughing. Having fun. Being happy.

He couldn't remember the last time he laughed or felt happy.

He watched them closely feeling a bit like an intruder, even though she had invited him more than once to visit them. To see the place they lived in. To meet his grandchild. 

He felt bad. What kind of father wasn't able to visit his only child. What kind of grandfather wasn't eager to meet his granddaughter. He had no answer to those questions.

And while he thought of the right words to say, to explain, he saw that they had stopped their little game. The snowman beside them unfinished. They looked at him. Starred even, as if he was a Fata Morgana in the middle of a white desert.

But before he could react or move any further, he felt arms around him hugging him tight. He could do nothing more than letting his bag fall on the ground and to return the hug. 

He couldn't remember the last time someone had hugged him. Or that he had hugged someone.

It must have been years.

“Father…” Her voice trembled.

He didn't let her go until he realised that they weren't alone any longer. Samuel Drummond stood close to them holding a little girl who smiled at him.

“You should have written…” Mathilda started to speak slowly breaking the silence once more.

“I'm sorry if… I should have let you know.”

“No, father, no.” Mathilda shook her head smiling at him. 

She hadn't seen him for a while but nothing had changed about him. The calm and quiet voice searching for the right words to say. The sadness in his blue eyes. He still seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.

“No, you should have written so we could have picked you up from the train station. The guest room... I would have made you your favourite dinner.”

“We should go inside” Drummond suggested. Not only because he was getting cold, but also because he knew the two had a lot to speak about and the road was not the place to do so.

 

“Grampa” the little girl spoke looking over Drummond's shoulder as they walked back to the house. She seemed to know him though she had never met him.

“We showed her pictures of you. Told her all about his grandfather.” Mathilda explained looking at him as she still couldn't believe he actually came.

“It was my new year's resolution.” He explained as if he had read her mind. “To visit you. Drummond. And to meet the girl.”

“I'm glad you came.” She smiled as the reached the door. 

“We are glad.” His son in law added as he put the little girl down and followed him in a room which seemed to be the kitchen. 

“Actually it was last year's.” He knew he shouldn't have said it. But he always had been an honest man.

“It doesn't matter.” She smiled.

It did matter he thought. He should have visited them long ago. He knew he failed her. She was his daughter. The only person he had left and he didn't… but before he could think any further, he heard her voice again.

“I know what I said in Whitechapel… that you wouldn't come. Couldn't come... but here you are… It's like a dream come true.”

“I missed you. Ever since you left. Whitechapel doesn't change. My job doesn't… but everything changed.” He tried to explain.

“Let's not talk about that now. We have time for that. Let us have some tea and I guess someone is eager to finally meet you.” Mathilda smiled brightly. Even though she thought, he would never visit, she had hoped for it to happen often. To see his face again. Hear his voice. And how desperately she had wished him to come to meet his granddaughter.

“I know that feeling.” he admitted with a small smile on his face before he took her hand which lead him to the room where Drum and the little child were waiting for them.

 

They talked for hours by the fireplace that evening. Their life in the countryside. Drummond's new job. Mathilda's writing. He knew about it all too well. He had read every single letter she had sent. Kept them in a box beside his bed. He knew every word by heart.

But he loved to hear them speak. Soaked it all in. Every single little detail. Every smile and every little piece of love.

Nothing had changed but at the same time everything had changed.

And later, when he read a nighttime story to his granddaughter that night and she fell to a peaceful sleep in his arms with a smile on her face, he realised what had changed. A feeling he had long lost. Something he thought he would never feel again.

In his daughter's arms Edmund Reid found peace.  
In his granddaughter's smile Edmund Reid found happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> The End of Ripper Street was heartbreaking, wasn't it? Ever since my RS marathon in summer, it wouldn't leave me... I followed numerous blogs on tumblr, looked at every cartoon, and read every story I could find but still there was this sadness... Edmund Reid alone in his office. This guy really needed a hug. 
> 
> I won't say it's the best story I have ever written (I actually haven't written in a while and never for Ripper Street), but the idea wouldn't leave me and so I out it down. Hope you enjoy it.
> 
> P.S. I actually wanted to give Reid another kind of happy ending but who is he supposed to end up with? I don't think there was ever a series in which I liked all ladies...


End file.
